Blew out #2 plug. Questions inside.

[Sir William]

Blew out #2 plug. Can I drive it?

Ok, the wife headed into town today and called from about 5 miles out and said it was making a horrible noise. Other vehicle is down so she had no choice but to drive it back. Once back here, I noticed the #2 plug where it shouldn't be.

The coil broke at the mount and the boot is torn up pretty bad. I tried to rethread the plug into the hole, but no dice. So I need to get it fixed. Town is roughly 15 miles to where I'd have to get it worked on. I pulled the injector plug off so no fuel and removed the bad coil.

Question is, what should I *normally* expect to pay to have one cylinder fixed with an insert (Time-sert > helicoil I know). And the bigger question, could it be driven minus a plug or should I have it towed?

Thanks for reading and hopefully you all have some answers.

 

[toms89]

No idea on cost.

Driving it with cylinder down will certainly throw air/fuel ratio off on that bank. Potential issue I could see is damage to the cats on that bank but I believe short term you would be fine. Not sure what oil buildup if any would occur in the cylinder due to it not firing.

Myself... I would probably attempt to drive it to where it can be repaired depending on how I feel she is running. If cats started to smell badly may consider stopping and have towed.

But then I have AAA that covers towing expense.

 

[tonydiv]

I think the Ford dealer charged me $250 when I blew a plug.

Since you're not dumping any fuel in to that cylinder, I think you should be safe to drive it to the shop.

 

[R4mbo]

I did 300km with only 7cylinders witouth any issue. (Bad coil in Greece)

 

[KPPCExplorer]

Did you try threading a new spark plug in? I blew plug 3 a couple months ago and the thread on the plug was messed up and wouldn't thread in, but a new plug threaded right into the head. It was worth the shot to spend $5 for a new plug vs taking it to a shop.

 

[Sir William]

I did check the plug that came out and the threads looked fine. I cleaned it up, put on some anti-seize and tried to thread it back in....no dice. I limped it in to the shop today....with lots of looks from people since it was so danged loud. It should be done tomorrow and run from $160-180 plus tax.

Thanks for the help guys!